Yeshua section 2

ROMAN SOLDIER: [Enters with other soldiers and Jael and scaffold. She is bloody and nearly                                     or totally naked. They have just finished whipping her and she                                                      collapses. They crucify her as he speaks:]

                        Hail, friends, dogs, chattel of Rome! We won’t be here long.      She will be                                 here longer than you are she would like.

SOLDIERS:

                        Bow before Caesar’s forces! Kneel before the eagle!

            [They intimidate the Jews, driving them to the edges of the stage.]          

FIRST ROMAN SOLDIER:

                        Witness the punishment for murder of a citizen of Rome. This whore must                             die for it.

JAEL:     [Her delivery is bipolar but begins weak and then finds strength,             though her voice remains hoarse. She is fooled by her own    ironies so as to appear completely sincere. She must speak             extremely fast by the end but remain articulate. This actress must          be miked. As she speaks a spotlight should narrow on her until        finally there is just a needle of light on her face.]

                        What a brief toy our cheated life must seem.

            The kingdom shall to Israel be restored!

            Send forth Messiah, the time has come, O God!   

            Go unreserved to slay a thousand crows,

            A hammered thousand Roman swords that march

            In serried legions – adamant their shields,

            Gleaming their silvery helmets’ steel, and long

            The reach of javelins. Not doubting, go!

            God furnished Moses tables on the dune,

            How shall he succor you the less? And we

            The females will no refuge take in walls

            Of Jericho, that town of palm trees, nor

            Shall we pause by the sculptured stones of Gilgal,

            Nor will you at war confront the siege,

            The hunger-gnawing siege, the vanquished rape,

            Unless a forest pen you in where Rome’s

            Machines can pick you off by tens – while we

            Must watch them undermine the Temple footings,

            Watch beetles eat through Herod’s flawless stone.

            But go! Don’t question God’s ukase to arms!

            It’s clarion as the hooting owl at dusk!  

            Let nothing change your strategy. Go make

            Us safe in graveless death, expunge the blood

            Of Sarah’s race, erase Tanakh, allow

            A correspondent puff of air attest

            To what our people bore, brought forth, conceived.

            Or if not, free us from false hopes, enleague

            Israel with Parthia, Armenia –

            Extend your plot beyond Euphrates’ flux,

            And to Bactria, homeland of the Parsi

            Prophet Zoroaster, send a note.

            Or Tesiphon, if asked, her king might loan

            Rare cups of Murrhine clay, or grant us horse,

            Endorse our anti-Roman cause with spears

            And Scythian backward-shooting bowmen from

            The Tigris’ eastern shore; storm-troopers, too,

            From Babylon where Alexander died,

            Who, once he conquered, made the world to bow,

            To worship him a god. (Rome never dared

            So much.) Alarm all of the Hebrew brothers

            Living in the city Adiabene.

            Be advised: help can be quite strong-willed.   

            And willful colts won’t keep their flashing heads.

            Blessings on you, good fighting men! God bless

            You all! Success and victory. Go rid

            Our soil of Roman vermin and disease.

            And yet, remember this: when Achish, king

            Of Gath, gave refuge to Saul-hounded David,

            Granting to him Ziklag (so that town

            Pertaineth to the kings of Judah yet),

            The Philistines took arms for warfare near

            Gilboa. Saul saw battle-ready hosts

            Encamped against him and he shook

            With fear. Within an ephod box the Urim

            And the Thummim stayed until the priest

            Produced them to disclose God’s will by lot.

            But Saul learned nothing from them, nor

            From fervent prayers. Deriving nothing good

            From nightmares, nor from prophets (Samuel

            Was at this time deceased), Saul went disguised

            To Endor where a wizard dwelled, a crone

            Ugly of countenance: one eye was fogged,

            Protuberant; a red and blackish gourd

            Sprouting along one rotted row of teeth – 

            Malignant tumor – oozingly adorned

            Her antediluvian face. The king asked her

            To bring up from the house of death one he

            Should name. She first demurred, due to

            Saul’s law; so he disclosed himself, revoked

            All threat to necromancers. Samuel

            Summoned, appeared to her wrapped in white robes.

            She screamed, Why did you say bring me up Samuel?

            Why hast thou, Saul, disturbed me? Why disquiet

            Me in my rest? asked Samuel. Saul stooped

            And bent his face above the ground. Has God

            Abandoned me? Why seek me out, since he

            Answers you not? Thus spoke the priest and left

            Their presence. 

                          David then befriended his

            Old enemies, newly betrayed his friends;

            With Achish he’d have fought, had Achish him

            Allowed. The counsel of Phoenicians was

            That David stay back in Phoenicia while

            They fought. Such wasn’t David’s choice. To fight

            With Israel – it was no great sin in David’s eyes.  

            If Israel Israel fights, what keeps back Parthia?

            If David dark-of-nighted then, who wouldn’t

            Noon us now? Despite the crimes of David,

            Persians lie. The Syrians scurry home.

            And now we don’t the slight Phoenicians face.

            For Rome is strong, and smart is she in strength;

            Add fierceness to her smarts and strength and to 

            Ferocity add too her discipline. 

            Roman ships will come typhoon-like, as 

            Tsunami waves, destroying all your towers

            Like windows dressed with little potted flowers. 

            I’ve seen the tragedies of learned Greeks!

            Once, long ago ships changed to mermaids,

            Or downy swans. Can women turn to doves?

            And men to sparrows? The dawn was bronze

            When children saw debris from heights descend

            In fluttering arcs earthward, from doubled structures,

            Quite vulnerable to rabid violence,

            As frail as orange blossoms facing blizzards,

            As bougainvilleas holding back a hurricane,

            Or as a candle girl who eyes the Minotaur.

            No happy transformation comes to these –

            Unless one undetectable to senses

            Of human beings. In such inclement world,

            Dear friends, you breathe. Such instability

            Mortal life affords – weather through. Brace up

            And hold together, cling against the storms.

            Trifles kill us, insignificant small things.

            Weather through! Trust no alliances, Hebrews!

            Teasing an emperor is hopeless war,

            War unsupportable. A Jew is worth

            A thousand men of Rome. Kill all of Rome

            Or none at all. Kill all that call themselves

            Romans or Rome will turn and pave these hills. 

            [Roman soldiers come and strangle her to death. Great confusion and     shouting ensues. Horribly discordant music plays loudly. Thunder    sounds. Lightning flashes. Spot lights flash on individual faces frozen           in torment and rage. They all exit left raving after Zadok and Yacov             except Eli, who walks after them slowly and despondently with a             walking stick, and a ten-year-old Yeshua frozen watching them go.       Yeshua looks to the right where John exited through a narrow cleft in        the rocks. A boy’s voice from offstage calls): Yeshua! (Pause.) Yeshua!    (Yeshua spins back to the left and thinks of going that way for a   moment but then deliberately jogs to the right and exits where John    exited. Lights go down.]